


your heart melted on my couch

by lesbianmxgicians (kaianieves)



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Blood and Violence, F/F, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-07 09:25:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17957867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/lesbianmxgicians
Summary: Alice just needs somewhere to stay. That place happens to be Julia's.





	your heart melted on my couch

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is my femslash OTP now. Yeah- definitely.

Julia isn't expecting a knock on the door at three in the morning. She's almost tempted to roll over in bed and ignore it. She almost does, but then the person on the other side knocks again, heavier and more insistent this time. Julia sighs, pulling the covers off of her legs and climbing out of bed.

The knocking continues as she makes her way to the door. Before she opens it, Julia glances through the peep hole. Who she sees surprises her. Julia was expecting Quentin, maybe with some urgent magical news- maybe he'd found a way to break the world again and would be asking for her help. Instead, it was Alice. Like Quentin in some ways; a classically trained magician, definitely on the nerd introvert side of the scale along with him. But Alice was all business and harsh lines. The energy she gave off was a little colder and malleable. Julia and Alice hadn't spoken much, but when they had, Julia had always found her interesting. They were a bit alike, the two of them.

Julia unlocks and unlatches the door, opening it. The light in the hallway shines directly in her face, barely shaded by Alice's head. "Alice, hi. What are you- what are you doing here?" she asks. There's a look of slight relief on Alice's face when she sees Julia, but there are still creases in her forehead. She's stressing.

"Can I come in?" Alice asks.

Julia is still groggy, so it takes a moment to process the request. "Yeah, sure. Come in," she says, opening the door wider. Alice walks past her, their shoulders brushing briefly. Her short heels click on the floor of Julia's apartment.

"I was wondering if I could stay here," Alice says. "Just for tonight," she adds quickly. Julia blinks harshly, trying to wake herself up. She yawns.

"Alright. I hope you don't mind if I ask, though," Julia says. "Does it have anything to do with Quentin? Should I call hi-"

"It has nothing to do with Quentin, alright. For once it's my own stupidity that's fucked me over." Julia doesn't say anything to that. "I just need somewhere to-to get my head on right. The less people that know, the better," Alice says. She looks scared, really scared. Julia wants to reach out and give her a hug. She doesn't, obviously. She barely knows the woman, and doesn't know the situation. That would be weird.

"Well is there anything I can do to help?" Julia asks.

"Continue on as if I wasn't even here," Alice says. It's more implication than instruction, that Julia doesn't have to worry about Alice imposing. Julia nods, giving Alice a lip-less smile.

"Alright then," Julia says. She turns to head back to her bedroom.

"Night," she hears Alice say. It's faint, behind her and so quiet Julia thinks she's imagined it.

 

In the morning, when Julia walks into the living room, it's quiet. She was expecting snoring. Alice lays on the couch, head resting on a pillow. She's crouched into the fetal position and her glasses still sit on her face.

Julia smiles to herself. She doesn't know why; Alice just looks so peaceful. It's nice to see for once. She's always felt a sympathy for the woman. Alice has been through so much magical bullshit that you can visibly see she carries. She can relate.

She goes back into her bedroom and grabs a blanket. Julia lays it gently over Alice, then takes off her glasses. She folds them, putting them on the coffee table. Alice continues to sleep quietly.

When Alice wakes up, Julia's gone. There isn't a note of explanation. It makes sense. She doesn't owe her one. There's a blanket covering her legs that she doesn't remember being there when she fell asleep, and Alice's vision is blurry until she finds her glasses sitting across from her. Her stomach grumbles, and the clothes she's wearing are getting uncomfortable.

Alice stands up, stretching. Then she makes her way into the kitchen. She just needs something small. Opening the fridge, she sighs. It's pretty much empty, unless she can somehow concoct a meal from about teaspoon of expired tomato juice and some artificial cheese slices. Even if she could, she doesn't exactly _want_ to.

There's noise at the front door, which catches her attention. She closes the fridge and turns around just in time to watch the door open. Julia walks through, a paper bag in her arms. "Oh," she says. "You're up."

"Yeah," Alice says quietly. Julia closes the door behind her, locking it. She walks across the living room to the kitchen counter, setting the bag down.

"I figured, since I had company I'd buy some food. It's always good to, uh- eat."

"It's always good to do that," Alice echoes.

Reaching into the bag, Julia sets two to go containers with Chinese dragons on the sides on the counter. "I hope take-out is alright."

"Sure."

Julia hands one to Alice, as well as a plastic fork. Then she walks to her couch, moving the blanket aside and sitting down. Alice stands still in the kitchen, not sure what to do. Taking a bite of her food, it looks like Julia doesn't know what to do either. "So did you sleep well?" she asks.

"Uh, yeah. Thank you, by the way. For the blanket," Alice says.

Julia's cheeks flush a little, and she sticks another forkful of noodles in her mouth. "No problem," she says after she swallows. Alice finally sits down next to her. She's eating the Chinese food, trying to take it slowly. She hasn't eaten in days and knows she could devour all of it in an inappropriately short amount of time. But that would be gross, impolite.

"So how's everyone at Brakebills?" Julia asks.

"I haven't been at Brakebills in... a while," Alice admits. Julia tries to hide her eyebrows raising in surprise. "Still dealing with the... de-Niffining and it's repercussions."

Julia wants to ask so badly, and this time, she can't help herself. "What repercussions?"

Alice sets the container down in her lap, staring at her hands holding it. Then she looks up again. Her face is strained, like she's holding back a waterfall from crashing over the edge. "I did horrible things, Julia. Maimed, stole... killed. All-"

"In the name of magic," Julia finishes for her.

"Yeah," Alice says weakly. "For that." She's debating whether she should go on when there's a knock at the door. Julia's head whips around to look at it, then at Alice. She shrugs, standing up, Chinese food still in hand. That's when something occurs to Alice. "No, wait. Julia-" She stands, turning to see that Julia has already opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she asks, looking up. There's a tall figure standing in the hallway outside. He takes off his hood, revealing a heavily scarred face. The man looks completely normal to Julia, but Alice knows better. She can see it in his eyes.

"Julia close the door!" she cries. It's too late. The man pushes Julia out of his way, sending her straight into the wall. Her noodles spill across the floor. The man stalks toward Alice. She moves her hands quickly, casting a spell. Battle magic; it shoves him back a few feet, but only seems to anger him further. She quickly moves around the couch, pressing her pointer and middle fingers together along with her thumbs, forming a rhombus shape. Alice then separates her fingers, forcing her hands forwards toward the man. He stumbles back again. A dark red patch in the shape of a diamond on his chest starts growing quickly.

He chases Alice to the kitchen. She spots a sharp knife sticking out of a knife block and grabs it. "Screw magic," she mutters. Charging for the man, she plunges the knife into his chest right where his heart should be. He stills for a moment, a brief look of shock on his face. He then falls to the floor with a heavy thud. Chest heaving, Alice stands over him. When she's sure he's dead, she rushes to Julia at the front door. Her eyes are closed, causing a heavy knot to form in Alice's throat. She feels for a pulse. There is one, thank God.

Gently trying to shake her awake doesn't work, so Alice picks her up and carries her to the couch. She tries to convince herself it's a concussion as she quickly cleans up the Chinese food on the floor.

 

Julia finally wakes up hours later. It's dark outside, and a dead man is laying in her kitchen. Alice sits on the floor, propped up against the couch next to where Julia was laying. Her face is red and her cheeks are still wet. She shoots awake, moving her head back and forth frantically when she doesn't see Julia next to her. When she spots her standing in front of her, she relaxes slightly. "You shouldn't be standing. You have a concussion," she sighs.

"I'm guessing that has something to do with the dead guy in the kitchen?" Julia asks. Alice nods.

"He was possessed by a Wisphand," she explains. Standing, Alice wipes at her cheeks before walking over to the body. Julia follows. Crouching, she shows Julia the man's left hand. There's a fleshy organism about the size of his palm attached, now grayed and wilting. "It dies with it's host."

"Well, we've got to get rid of the body."

Alice stands up.  _"I_ have to get rid of the body," she says. "And then I have to leave." Julia blinks. "This is my mess to clean up, and you don't need to get caught up in it." The thing is, now Julia's concerned. She wants Alice to stay; she wants to help her. Because it may have been only twenty four hours, but these twenty four hours have made Julia realize something. She's rather fond of Alice- in what specific way, she doesn't know. But that Wisphand thing was clearly dangerous, and it seems like more are just on the horizon.

Those sharp lines come back in Alice's face. She won't take no for an answer. Julia swallows, stepping away from the corpse and pooled blood.

Alice is gone in thirty minutes. She wraps the body in an old rug Julia's been meaning to throw away, mops up the blood and returns the kitchen knife to it's respectful place next to the microwave. Julia notices after she leaves that she didn't finish her food. There's a couple fortune cookies in the paper bag it came in. She throws it all away, walking back to her bed and pulling up the covers. She passes out wondering if Alice is okay.


End file.
